NICHOLAS BANNAN is a Lecturer in Music Education at the University of Reading. His earliest musical experience was as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral. He went on to study Music at Cambridge University, where he specialized in vocal studies and composition. He has taught in several schools, including Eton College. He was Director of Music at Desborough School, Maidenhead, where the choir he conducted was in demand to work with London orchestras and made frequent broadcasts on television and radio. He continued to develop his work as a composer, winning the Fribourg Prize for Sacred Music in 1986 and completing commissions for the Allegri and Grieg Quartets, the Guildhall String Ensemble, Cantemus Novum of Antwerp, and the Gentlemen of St. Paul's Cathedral.
His work as an educator focused increasingly on means of releasing children's creativity, and he formed the partnership Compose Yourself! to provide workshop opportunities for pupils and in-service training for teachers. Since taking up his appointment at the University of Reading in 1993, he has carried out research into the use of electronic resources in vocal education and the means by which vocal potential can be released in singers of all ages and abilities. His investigations are increasingly related to considering the role of singing in human development from an evolutionary perspective. He is Director of the Music Teaching in Private Practice Initiative, a distance-learning Diploma and Masters programme administered at the International Centre for Research in Music Education.